Children work grueling hours assembling merchandise
One can hardly shop for clothing today without finding an article made by exploited children. Gap and Nike both have undertaken massive public scrutiny because of the poor conditions that their workers in third world countries face daily. Children in Vietnam, China, Vietnam, Mexico, Indonesia, Cambodia, Brazil, and India are exposed to these conditions daily and are denied their natural human right to education as they are forced to work from cradle to grave. Child workers in third world countries have become an integral part of the world economy as a drive to cut costs has sent much of the manufacturing and assembly work to sweatshops. Yet, without a doubt harm is done to the development of children who are forced to work for hours. Despite the obvious advantage for corporations of cheap labor, the harm caused by the child workforce outweighs the benefits and this practice needs to be outlawed to prevent undue harm to innocent children around the world.
Historical Background
An Overview of Child Labor
There is no universally accepted definition of "child labor". Varying definitions of the term are used by international organizations, non-governmental organizations, trade unions and other interest groups. Writers and speakers don’t always specify what definition they are using, and that often leads to confusion. However, in general, child labor is work that harms or exploits children in some way, whether it is physically, mentally, morally, or by blocking there access to education and freedom. International conventions define children as aged 18 and under; yet individual governments may define "child"
A child works in a sweatshop
according to different ages or other criteria. Also, different cultures view the concept of a "child" in different ways. A "child" is not necessarily designated by a fixed age. Social scientists point out that children’s abilities and maturities vary so much that defining a child’s maturity by calendar age can be misleading. Child labor ranges from four-year-olds tied to rug looms to keep them from running away, to seventeen-year-olds helping out on the family farm. Although, child labor is not always a bad thing. In some cases, a child's work can be helpful to him or her and to the family; to some, working and earning money can be a positive experience while growing up. This depends largely on the age of the child, the conditions in which the child works, and whether work prevents the child from going to school. It is estimated that there are approximately 246 million child workers aged 5 to 17 involved in child labor, of which 171 million are involved in work that by its nature is hazardous to their safety, physical or mental health, and moral development. Moreover, some 8.4 million children are engaged in so-called
The above figure indicated the geographic distribution of child labor.
'unconditional' worst forms of child labor, which include forced and bonded labor, the use of children in armed conflict, trafficking in children and commercial sexual exploitation. Working long hours exposes children to dangerous and unhealthy conditions, often resulting is lasting physical and psychological harm. In silk thread factories in India, for example, children breath smoke and fumes from machinery, handle dead worms that can cause infections, guide twisting threads that cut their fingers, and dip their hands into boiling water that burn and blisters them. Harvesting sugar cane in El Salvador with machetes for up to nine hours a day in the scorching sun regularly causes injuries to children's hands and legs; medical care is often not available for such injuries. Children working in rug looms are often left disabled with stunted growth, eye damage, lung disease, and an increased susceptibility to arthritis as they grow older. In extreme circumstances, some children are confined and beaten, reduced to slavery and denied an education and normal childhood. Some are denied freedom of movement as well as the right to leave the workplace and go home to their families. Some are even abducted and forced to work against their will. These children are everywhere but invisible, hidden in the fields of plantations, toiling as domestic servants in homes, and struggling behind the walls of factories.
Agricultural
Of the 246 million child laborers world wide, nearly 70 percent, or about 170 million, work in the agriculture, fishing, forestry, and hunting industry. Only 1 to2 percent of these child laborers work in export-oriented agriculture, but that is still about 2 million children. The work of a child agricultural laborer is grueling and harsh and violates their rights to health, education, and protection from work that is exploitative and dangerous. They often work for long hours under the burning sun, hauling heavy loads of produce, and are exposed to toxic pesticides. As a result, they suffer high rates of injury from sharp knives and other dangerous tools. From harvesting bananas in Ecuador, to flowers in Colombia, to tobacco in Mexico, to cotton in Egypt, to cocoa in the Ivory Coast, to oranges in Brazil, to tea in Argentina and Bangladesh, to fruits and vegetables in the United States, child laborers are everywhere; children even work as divers in the dangerous deep-sea fishing industry in Indonesia. In investigations in Ecuador, India, Egypt, and the United States, Human Rights Watch has found that the children working in agriculture are exploited and endangered on a daily basis.
Child laborer picking cotton
In Egypt, Human Rights Watch examined the cotton industry, Egypt's major cash crop, where over one million children work each year to manually remove pests from cotton plants. In Ecuador, where nearly 600,000 children work in the rural sector, the organization investigated conditions for children working in banana fields and packing plants. In the United States, Human Rights Watch examined conditions for the estimated 300,000 children who work as hired laborers in large-scale commercial agriculture, planting, weeding, and picking apples, cotton, cantaloupe, lettuce, asparagus, watermelons, chilies, and other crops. In India, as part of a larger study on bonded child labor, Human Rights Watch looked at bonded child laborers working in agriculture. There are as many as 15 million bonded child laborers in India, most of whom are Dalits (so-called untouchables) or lower caste. More than half, and possibly as many as 87 percent of these bonded child laborers work in agriculture, tending crops, herding cattle, and performing other tasks for their "masters." Despite the differences among these four countries, the risks and abuses that these children face are strikingly similar.
According to the International Labor Organization's report on child labor, the number of children working in agriculture is nearly ten times that of children involved in factory work such as garment manufacturing, soccer-ball stitching, or carpet-weaving. Yet despite their numbers and the difficult nature of their work, children working in agriculture have received little attention compared to child labor in manufacturing for export or children involved in commercial sexual exploitation. As stated by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Every child shall have . . . the right to such measures of protection as are required by his status as a minor, on the part of his family, society and the State." The Convention on the Rights of the Child provides that children-all persons under eighteen "unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier"-have a right "to be protected from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development." Every government in the world except for the United States and Somalia are required to "undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative, and other measures for the implementation of the rights recognized in this Convention."
Millions of children, especially girls, work domestically as one of the few option available to them in order to provide for themselves and their families. Instead of securing their ability to work with freedom from violence and dignity, these workers have been systematically denied key labor protections. Despite that fact that these domestic workers make extraordinary sacrifices to support their families, they are among the most exploited and abused child workers in the world. Many child domestic workers are victims of child trafficking and are bonded by debts to their employers. They works long hours with very little opportunity for rest and are exposed to deadly hazards while working. The long list of abuses committed by employers and labor agents includes physical, psychological, and sexual abuse; forced confinement in the
Girls and Women work in a garmet shop
workplace; non-payment of wages; and excessively long working hours with no rest days. In the worst situations, women and girls are trapped in situations of forced labor or have been trafficked into forced domestic work in conditions akin to slavery. Abuses against domestic workers typicially take place in private homes, hidden from the public eye. As a result, child domestic work is one of the most hidden and hard to monitor forms of child labor, but in recent years have garnered increased attention.
Using sweatshops is becoming an increasingly popular in the industrial world because sweatshops are the perfect place for companies to practice profit maximization. A sweatshop is a factory where workers are forced to work for lower wages, if any, with no benefits, long hours, and under cramped, unsanitary conditions. Most companies prefer to use children because they can be paid even less or nothing at all.
Their small fingers and hands can fit into places which an adults couldn't. Also, they are easier to control, and thus managers do not have to deal with unionization. Any unions formed by children are easily broken, and so children are easily scared into continuing to work. Thousands die each year from the exhaustion caused by 12+ hour work days, 7 days a week, injury from machinery, abuse by factory management, and sickness due to the unsanitary conditions. These children are working in the brick in glass factories in India, in the clothing factories in Bangladesh, and the shoe factories in the Pakistan. Overall, about 5 percent of child laborers work in the manufacturing or mining sectors.
Sweatshops are known to be widespread in these countries: Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Hati, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam.
The following companies are known for using child labor: Nike, Phillips-Van Heusen, Disney, Guess, The Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Tommy Hilfiger, Reebok, Levi Straus, Liz Caliborne, Ralph Lauren, Mattel, Wal-Mart, Roohsing(Hong Kong clothing company), Kohl's.
Increased awareness has unfortunately not been matched by concerted government action. Hong Kong is one of the few places where the government guarantees equal protection under its labor laws. The norm is for governments to exclude domestic workers from these laws altogether, or to provide weaker, poorly enforced regulations that leave employers enjoying virtual impunity to exact excruciatingly long hours of work for grossly inadequate wages.
Since 2001, Human Rights Watch has conducted research on abuses against domestic workers originating from or working in El Salvador, Guatemala, Guinea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Togo, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.
Prostitution
Child sex workers in Asia
Without a doubt, the most disturbing profession forced upon children is the sex industry. The child sex industry has blossomed in Southeast Asia, especially Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia because "the demand for children in the sex trade is great. Every year, people from all over the world travel to Asia to have sex with children, taking photographs and videos." This exploitation causes permanent physical
Ad for a program that fights child prostitution
and emotional harm that is irreversible. Children in orphanages, prisons, sweatshops, and domestic areas may also be sexual abused by officers or employers but unable to resist these attacks because they must rely on these people for their livelihood. Without a doubt, there is an undeniable problem with child prostitution, especially in Southeast Asia where up to 1% of girls become prostitutes. According to the Human Rights Watch, a "World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children was held in Stockholm in 1996, attended by representatives of governments, U.N. bodies, and nongovernmental organizations, from 125 countries. The congress issued a strong declaration against commercial sexual exploitation of children and an agenda for action; an international focal point on sexual exploitation of children was established in Geneva to coordinate reform efforts. A number of governments and NGOs are continuing their efforts to attack the problem. But vast numbers of children are still trapped in this life-threatening sex trade." Many of these sex workers are trafficked in illegally from other countries and endure conditions that are simply inhumane. These young girls must survive conditions " tantamount to slavery. Subject to debt bondage, illegal confinement, various forms of sexual and physical abuse, and exposure to HIV in brothels, they then faced arrest as illegal immigrants if they tried to escape or if the brothels were raided by Thai police. Once arrested, the girls were sometimes subjected to further sexual abuse in Thai detention centers." Without a doubt, the human sex trade of children for prostutitution does undue harm to children who are unable to escape from a system that continually harms them. The cradle to grave deprication and both emotional and physical harm posed to child workers in the sex industry, especially in Southeast Asia must be stopped.
Call to Action
There are numerous pressing human needs; the problem is, they are hard to prioritize. We need to deal with environmental protection and securing an adequate standard of living for many. We need to combat HIV and other epidemic diseases. We need to deal with terrorism, military conflicts, and drug trafficking. We need to clean water, provide better sanitation and irrigation, health care and immunizations, and adequate nutrition. The list goes on and on and is daunting. What we need to think of is not only how many human rights issues are linked to child labor, but how many of these issues can be addressed by redirecting millions of child laborers to school - for example, HIV, education, immunizations, nutrition, etc. Quality education can make a huge, positive impact and help to create a culture of global tolerance, world peace, and security.
The following links are sites that fight for the eradication of child labor...
Save the Children Fund champions the rights of children globally working to right the fundamental wrongs the affect child globally, and campaigns actively for the end of child soldiers.
Plan International uses child sponsorships as a way of funding projects to help communities improve their health, education, environment, economic stability, and thus the future of their children.
End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism is a network of organizations and individuals working together to eliminate the commercial sexual exploitation of children. It seeks to encourage the world community to ensure that children everywhere enjoy their fundamental rights free from all forms of commercial sexual exploitation.
ChildhopeUK is providing opportunities for and defending the rights of street children and working children worldwide.
The Rugmark Foundation is an international nonprofit organization that works in India, Nepal, and Pakistan devoted to building schools, programs and opportunities that give children back their childhoods by ending child labor in the handmade carpet industry in South Asia.
Human Rights Watch is a US-based NGO and is campaigning to stop the use of child soldiers.
Rebuilding Hope is a Mozambican NGO rehabilitating child soldiers in Maputo.
Medecins Sans Frontieres is an independent humanitarian medical aid agency committed to two objectives: providing medical aid where ever needed regardless of race, religion, politics, or sex and raising awareness of the plight of the people they help.
The International Committee of the Red Cross is an impartial, neutral and independent organization whose exclusively humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity of victims of war and internal violence and to provide them with assistance.
Doctors of the World aims to create sustainable access to healthcare for communities around the world.
Know Child Labor is a resource website on international child labor issues dedicated to teachers, children, and youth.
Child Labors
One can hardly shop for clothing today without finding an article made by exploited children. Gap and Nike both have undertaken massive public scrutiny because of the poor conditions that their workers in third world countries face daily. Children in Vietnam, China, Vietnam, Mexico, Indonesia, Cambodia, Brazil, and India are exposed to these conditions daily and are denied their natural human right to education as they are forced to work from cradle to grave. Child workers in third world countries have become an integral part of the world economy as a drive to cut costs has sent much of the manufacturing and assembly work to sweatshops. Yet, without a doubt harm is done to the development of children who are forced to work for hours. Despite the obvious advantage for corporations of cheap labor, the harm caused by the child workforce outweighs the benefits and this practice needs to be outlawed to prevent undue harm to innocent children around the world.
Historical Background
An Overview of Child Labor
There is no universally accepted definition of "child labor". Varying definitions of the term are used by international organizations, non-governmental organizations, trade unions and other interest groups. Writers and speakers don’t always specify what definition they are using, and that often leads to confusion. However, in general, child labor is work that harms or exploits children in some way, whether it is physically, mentally, morally, or by blocking there access to education and freedom. International conventions define children as aged 18 and under; yet individual governments may define "child"Agricultural
Of the 246 million child laborers world wide, nearly 70 percent, or about 170 million, work in the agriculture, fishing, forestry, and hunting industry. Only 1 to2 percent of these child laborers work in export-oriented agriculture, but that is still about 2 million children. The work of a child agricultural laborer is grueling and harsh and violates their rights to health, education, and protection from work that is exploitative and dangerous. They often work for long hours under the burning sun, hauling heavy loads of produce, and are exposed to toxic pesticides. As a result, they suffer high rates of injury from sharp knives and other dangerous tools. From harvesting bananas in Ecuador, to flowers in Colombia, to tobacco in Mexico, to cotton in Egypt, to cocoa in the Ivory Coast, to oranges in Brazil, to tea in Argentina and Bangladesh, to fruits and vegetables in the United States, child laborers are everywhere; children even work as divers in the dangerous deep-sea fishing industry in Indonesia. In investigations in Ecuador, India, Egypt, and the United States, Human Rights Watch has found that the children working in agriculture are exploited and endangered on a daily basis.
According to the International Labor Organization's report on child labor, the number of children working in agriculture is nearly ten times that of children involved in factory work such as garment manufacturing, soccer-ball stitching, or carpet-weaving. Yet despite their numbers and the difficult nature of their work, children working in agriculture have received little attention compared to child labor in manufacturing for export or children involved in commercial sexual exploitation. As stated by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Every child shall have . . . the right to such measures of protection as are required by his status as a minor, on the part of his family, society and the State." The Convention on the Rights of the Child provides that children-all persons under eighteen "unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier"-have a right "to be protected from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development." Every government in the world except for the United States and Somalia are required to "undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative, and other measures for the implementation of the rights recognized in this Convention."
Child Labor in the US
Industrial Work
Millions of children, especially girls, work domestically as one of the few option available to them in order to provide for themselves and their families. Instead of securing their ability to work with freedom from violence and dignity, these workers have been systematically denied key labor protections. Despite that fact that these domestic workers make extraordinary sacrifices to support their families, they are among the most exploited and abused child workers in the world. Many child domestic workers are victims of child trafficking and are bonded by debts to their employers. They works long hours with very little opportunity for rest and are exposed to deadly hazards while working. The long list of abuses committed by employers and labor agents includes physical, psychological, and sexual abuse; forced confinement in the
Using sweatshops is becoming an increasingly popular in the industrial world because sweatshops are the perfect place for companies to practice profit maximization. A sweatshop is a factory where workers are forced to work for lower wages, if any, with no benefits, long hours, and under cramped, unsanitary conditions. Most companies prefer to use children because they can be paid even less or nothing at all.
Their small fingers and hands can fit into places which an adults couldn't. Also, they are easier to control, and thus managers do not have to deal with unionization. Any unions formed by children are easily broken, and so children are easily scared into continuing to work. Thousands die each year from the exhaustion caused by 12+ hour work days, 7 days a week, injury from machinery, abuse by factory management, and sickness due to the unsanitary conditions. These children are working in the brick in glass factories in India, in the clothing factories in Bangladesh, and the shoe factories in the Pakistan. Overall, about 5 percent of child laborers work in the manufacturing or mining sectors.
Increased awareness has unfortunately not been matched by concerted government action. Hong Kong is one of the few places where the government guarantees equal protection under its labor laws. The norm is for governments to exclude domestic workers from these laws altogether, or to provide weaker, poorly enforced regulations that leave employers enjoying virtual impunity to exact excruciatingly long hours of work for grossly inadequate wages.
Since 2001, Human Rights Watch has conducted research on abuses against domestic workers originating from or working in El Salvador, Guatemala, Guinea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Togo, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.
Prostitution
Without a doubt, the most disturbing profession forced upon children is the sex industry. The child sex industry has blossomed in Southeast Asia, especially Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia because "the demand for children in the sex trade is great. Every year, people from all over the world travel to Asia to have sex with children, taking photographs and videos." This exploitation causes permanent physical
Call to Action
There are numerous pressing human needs; the problem is, they are hard to prioritize. We need to deal with environmental protection and securing an adequate standard of living for many. We need to combat HIV and other epidemic diseases. We need to deal with terrorism, military conflicts, and drug trafficking. We need to clean water, provide better sanitation and irrigation, health care and immunizations, and adequate nutrition. The list goes on and on and is daunting. What we need to think of is not only how many human rights issues are linked to child labor, but how many of these issues can be addressed by redirecting millions of child laborers to school - for example, HIV, education, immunizations, nutrition, etc. Quality education can make a huge, positive impact and help to create a culture of global tolerance, world peace, and security.
The following links are sites that fight for the eradication of child labor...